"This is a unique and important opportunity for the Jaguars franchise, as well as for our fans and community," said the Jaguars' owner, Shad Khan. "We can't wait to see our global vision for the Jaguars become reality next season."

"We think Jaguars-49ers is a match-up our fans will really enjoy and a great way to start a new era in the international development of our game," said the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell.

Staging games is seen as the testing ground for the NFL's global push, although taking regular-season games to Asia has been ruled out because of the time difference.

"If we could do it [play games] in the UK there is no reason not to do it in Europe or Latin America," said the NFL's chief marketing officer, Mark Waller. "It's an experiment if we can make it work, there are many other markets we can build the footprint."